Surveillance is so hot right now. The NSA does it, the NYPD does it, hell even Snapchat is getting into the act of telling the government things about you. But why let faceless corporations and vaguely sinister government agencies have all the fun, when you can get started on your own dystopian nightmare surveillance space with these free cathode ray TV monitors?
Forget what the person giving them away says about them being perfect for your “steampunk living room,” it shows a clear lack of understanding as to what steampunk is. No, these monitors are from the horror movie tradition of green-tinted, scratchy security footage that people watch to see what horrible things befell the last victims in a given area. Or that some mysterious government authority watches while keeping a close eye on the citizenry of some future we dare not ponder.
True, if you want to actually use them to spy on people you’d have to go out and get security cameras, but those are cheaper than ever nowadays. And you could also just put them somewhere, hook up a hidden VCR and play a looping tape of a creepy abandoned property somewhere and tell your friends you’re keeping an eye on it “for people.”